More than 100 years ago, mysterious health problems began plaguing young factory workers in New Jersey. This is the story of how they tracked down the cause—and fought a courageous battle for justice.
Learning Objective: analyze a character in a play and complete an in-role writing task that incorporates key ideas and details from the text
Prologue
H1: Our story begins more than 100 years ago.
H2: In one New Jersey town, dozens of young women feel lucky to work at a new factory.
H1: These workers stroll through town and spin through dance halls with a glowing sparkle.
SD1: Three girls twirl onto the dark stage, laughing.
SD2: Their skin gives off an eerie green light.
H2: That faint sparkle is caused by radium, a metallic chemical element that the factory girls work with.
H1: People call radium “liquid sunshine” because it has a bright glow that never fades.
H2: And the workers are known as the Ghost Girls because of their own strange glow.
H1: In years to come, this nickname will take on a darker meaning. These women don’t know it yet, but that liquid sunshine they handle every day is actually poisoning them.
H2: It’s not a matter of if it will kill them—but when.
SD1: The girls fall to the ground, one by one.
Scene 1
April 1918, Orange, New Jersey
United States Radium Corporation (USRC) factory
SD2: The lights come up on a brightly lit factory floor. Women sit at long tables, painting watch dials and chatting happily.
Kate: It’s pretty simple work once you get the hang of it—and the pay is great!
Molly: Plus, we get to do our part for the war.
Grace: My older brothers are fighting overseas. Maybe some of the watches I paint will end up with them!
SD1: Kate gathers the new workers, a tiny paint brush in one hand.
Kate: OK ladies, listen up. The way to paint perfect numbers is the lip, dip, paint method. First, you wet the brush between your lips to get a fine point.
SD2: Kate slips the brush into her mouth.
Kate: Then you dip it into the radium paint, paint a number, and repeat. Everyone got it?
SD1: Arthur Roeder, then the treasurer of USRC, enters.
Grace: Excuse me, Kate. Is this safe? You must end up with paint in your mouth.
Kate: Well—
Roeder (interrupting) : Safe? It’s more than safe! Haven’t you seen the ads for radium water and radium toothpaste? People pay big money for this stuff, and you lucky girls are getting it for free! It’ll put roses in your cheeks and a spring in your step.
Grace: Then how come the men upstairs wear those heavy vests and use special tools?
Roeder: They’re working with large quantities. In small amounts, radium is perfectly safe and healthy.
SD2: Grace hesitates, then slips the brush between her lips to paint her first dial
Scene 2
June 1922
USRC factory floor
SD1: Lights come up on the factory floor.
SD2: It’s quiet, and there are fewer women working.
H1: The war has ended, but radium is still all the rage.
H2: Grace got a new job at a bank, but Molly and Kate still work at the factory.
SD1: Molly pauses to rub her jaw.
Kate: Teeth still bothering you?
Molly: I had two pulled last month, and three more are loose. My dentist can’t make heads or tails of it.
Kate: You know, Jane quit last week. She’s had awful problems with her back. And did I tell you about my cousin Irene?
Molly: She worked here before the war ended.
Kate: Yes. Well, she’s been bedridden for months now.
Molly: It can’t all be connected, right?
Kate: I don’t know. Now that I think about it, Irene had teeth pulled too.
SD2: Molly looks worried as she puts her brush between her lips.
© Corbis via Getty Images
Women and World War I
During World War I (1914-1918), Great Britain, Russia, France, and the U.S. (the Allied Powers) were fighting Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers). More than 40,000 women went overseas to serve as nurses, ambulance drivers, and translators. Millions of others filled roles that male soldiers had left behind at home, like factory and farming jobs. At the time, women faced widespread discrimination. They could not vote, open a bank account without a man’s signature, or get hired for certain jobs, for example. Being given the opportunity to work outside the home during the war would have been enticing—and empowering—for many.
These are women working in a factory in Pennsylvania, 1918
Scene 3
May 1924
Dr. Harold Madison’s waiting room
SD1: Grace enters a doctor’s waiting room, limping. She stops short.
Grace: Kate? Is that you?
SD2: Kate looks up. Her face is swollen and
pale, but she smiles.
Kate: Grace! How are you?
Grace: I’m fine, just some trouble with my foot. My parents finally convinced me to see a doctor. How are you? Are you still at the factory?
Kate: I quit. I had to miss too much work for dentist appointments. They can’t figure out what’s wrong, so I’m hoping Dr. Madison can help me.
Grace: Tooth trouble? I just had one pulled last week.
Kate (nodding) : I try not to worry, but Molly’s illness started with her teeth.
Grace: Molly’s sick too?
Kate: She . . . died last year.
Grace (shocked) : What? Everyone at the factory seems to be getting sick. This can’t be a coincidence.
Kate: I don’t think it is. I’m not sure radium is as healthy as they say it is.
Grace: I think it’s time we pay the factory a visit.
Scene 4
The next day
USRC factory
Richard W. Strauss, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Radium-infused paint was used to paint glowing watch faces so soldiers could tell the time in the dark.
SD1: Grace limps into the factory with Kate.
SD2: Kate holds a handkerchief to her mouth, which is streaked with smelly pus.
SD1: Mr. Kirkland, a supervisor, greets them.
Kirkland: Can I help you ladies?
Grace: Mr. Kirkland, I’m not sure if you remember us, but we used to work here.
Kate (muffled) : We were wondering if you had heard of any dial painters getting sick.
Kirkland (shiftily) : Why, no . . .
Grace: We’ve been having trouble with our teeth. Other girls have bad backs, and my foot has been bothering me.
Kirkland: You both look fine to me.
SD2: Kate lowers the handkerchief, exposing her swollen face.
SD1: Kirkland tries to stifle a gasp.
Kirkland: Even if you are sick, what are you implying? That it has something to do with the factory?
Grace: Well, we all worked here—with the radium.
Kate: We’re just trying to understand what’s happening to us.
SD2: Kirkland turns away.
Kirkland: This is nonsense. See yourselves out.
SD1: Dejected, the girls leave the factory. Roeder, now president of USRC, enters the room.
Kirkland: Sir, we might have a problem. Some former dial painters are ill, and they’re asking questions.
Roeder: Not to worry. Girls have been blaming their illnesses on our factory for years, but they can’t prove they got sick working here.
Kirkland: Can we prove they didn’t?
Roeder: I’ve hired the best scientists to investigate the factory. We’ll show everyone that these girls are simply trying to squeeze money out of an honest company.
Historical Images Archive/Alamy Stock Photo
U.S. troops in France, 1917
Scene 5
A few weeks later
Arthur Roeder’s office
SD2: Dr. Cecil Drinker sits across from Arthur Roeder, a thick report in his hands.
Roeder: So what do you say, Drinker? Can we put this nonsense behind us?
Drinker: I’m afraid not, Mr. Roeder. There seems to be an utter lack of understanding of the dangers of radium in your factory.
Roeder: Dangers?
Drinker: Your chief chemist has wounds on his hands—they’re caused by radium.
Roeder: Perhaps, but a little rash is nothing.
Drinker: That rash will get worse. And I examined some of your dial painters in a dark room. They glowed. They are covered in radium.
Roeder (chuckling) : Well, sure—the girls wear their best dresses to work so they can sparkle and shine in the dance halls.
Drinker: You’re not hearing me. Radium is dangerous, and it is making your workers sick.
SD1: Roeder crosses his arms and glares at Drinker as the lights slowly fade.
Scene 6
March 1925
Dr. Madison’s office
SD2: Grace, Kate, and Dr. Madison sit in his office.
Dr. Madison: Kate, how are you doing?
Kate (tearfully) : I had to miss Irene’s funeral last week. I couldn’t make it up the stairs into the church.
Grace: That makes at least two former dial painters who have died. It’s got to be the radium that’s causing this! We were practically eating it.
Madison: I agree. Radium is radioactive, and I suspect it could be harming you. But there’s no test to check for radium in a living body—yet.
Kate: Please, you have to help us. We need to be able to show that working at the factory is making women sick. For our own sakes, and for the sake of any future dial painters!
Madison: I’m working on it.
SD1: As the girls rise to leave, Grace whispers to Madison.
Grace: Please, doctor. Be quick.
SD2: Grace and Madison watch as Kate hobbles through the office door, holding the edges for support.
Grace: I don’t know how much longer we have.
Science Source (ad); INTERFOTO/Sammlung Rauch/Granger, NYC/The Granger Collection (Marie Curie)
Radium was discovered by scientists Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. Because of its glow, cosmetics companies started adding radium to products, touting it as a way to achieve a “radiant” appearance. Some doctors even prescribed it as medicine.
This is Marie Curie.
Scene 7
July 1925
St. Mary’s Hospital
SD1: Grace is visiting Kate in her hospital room. Kate is sitting up, but she’s frail.
SD2: Madison enters with a large medical bag.
Grace: I hope you have some good news.
Madison: I do. This electroscope will read the radiation coming from your skeleton.
Kate: My skeleton?
Madison: That’s right. Radium is similar to calcium, so your body sends it right into the bones. I believe that’s why all your problems are in your bones and teeth.
SD1: Madison sets up the electroscope in front of Kate, then Grace.
Madison: But while, say, calcium makes bones strong, radium seems to have the opposite effect. It appears to rot the bone from the inside out.
Kate: Before Irene died, one of her legs broke and it wouldn’t heal.
SD2: After running the test, Madison shakes his head.
Madison: I’m sorry to say that our suspicions have been correct. You’re full of radium—and it’s poisoning you.
Kate: What do we do now? How do you treat it?
Madison: There is no cure. I’m so sorry.
SD1: Kate begins to cry.
Grace (angrily) : We may not be able to save ourselves, but we have to make the company pay for what they’ve done to us. They won’t get away with this.
Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images (factory); Library of Congress (newspaper)
Radium is radioactive, which means it emits energy that can damage cells and DNA. Over time, radiation poisoning wears away at skin, bones, and teeth, and it can cause certain cancers. There were several U.S. factories that employed young women to paint watch and clock dials with radium, like the USRC did. It’s likely that thousands of these workers died as a result.
Scene 8
January 1928
Newark, New Jersey courthouse
H1: It took almost two years for Grace to find a lawyer willing to help her sue the powerful USRC.
H2: In those years, more dial painters died.
H1: USRC officials continued to insist that radium was not dangerous. But the public began to doubt them.
Reporter 1: It’s day one in “The Case of the Women Doomed to Die.”
Reporter 2: Brave Grace Fryer entered the courthouse wearing a steel back brace. Can her fresh-faced young lawyer, Raymond Berry, take on USRC?
Reporter 1: They’ve got to prove that radium made the dial painters sick if they have any hope of winning.
SD2: The lights fade, then come up on a courtroom.
Berry: Dr. Drinker, you were hired by USRC to investigate the factory, correct?
Drinker: That’s correct.
Berry: And what were the results?
Drinker: I found that, without a doubt, radium is the cause of these women’s illnesses.
SD1: Several people in the room gasp.
Berry: And what did USRC president Arthur Roeder say when you told him this?
Drinker: He said he’d make sure my report never saw the light of day.
SD2: More gasps ripple through the room.
SD1: The lights fade, then come up on the courthouse steps, where a crowd of people and reporters have gathered.
Passerby 1: I can’t believe what those poor girls have been through.
Passerby 2: Did you see that woman Kate, hardly able to walk?
Passerby 1: It’s shameful what that company is doing.
Reporter 2: Many couldn’t help but cry openly in court today as Grace Fryer and Kate Shaw told of their ordeal.
Reporter 1: It’s clear public opinion is on their side. But will the judge agree?
Underwood Archives/Getty Images
These are the real women who sued the U.S. Radium Corporation. This photo was taken after their lawsuit was settled in 1928. That’s Grace Fryer on the right!
Scene 9
June 1928
Newark courthouse
SD2: Nearly 300 people crowd in front of the courthouse, waiting for news.
Reporter 2: Court resumed today after several delays.
Reporter 1: Some spectators wondered if USRC was trying to run out the clock, so to speak, hoping these women die before a verdict is reached.
Reporter 2: Here comes Raymond Berry to make a statement, Grace Fryer at his side.
Berry: At last, I have good news to share. USRC has agreed to settle the case.
Reporter 1: What are the terms of the settlement?
Berry: USRC will pay each woman $10,000, plus $600 per year for the rest of their lives. The company will also pay for all past and future medical costs, as well as the costs of the trial.
Reporter 2: Grace! How do you feel?
Grace: It’s not enough, but I’m glad to get it. I can’t wait to tell Kate. She was too ill to be here today.
Reporter 1: How did you find the courage to stand up for yourself?
Grace: I didn’t do this for myself. I did it for the hundreds of girls who are sick. You see, it’s not over. There are more of us. More than we might ever know.
Epilogue
H2: Grace Fryer died on October 27, 1933.
H1: But she would not be forgotten. Her bravery inspired others to continue her fight for justice.
H2: More and more women sued radium companies across the United States.
H1: When World War II began and radium factories hired the next generation of dial painters, they were not asked to use the “lip, dip, paint” method.
H2: And the case led to the creation of a government agency that protects workers to this day, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
H1: Grace, along with many other young women, may have died.
H2: But the Ghost Girls continue to live on as shining examples of incredible courage, determination, and grit.
Writing Prompt
Imagine you are Grace Fryer. Write the testimony you give in court in Scene 8. Your testimony should describe your work at the factory, explain the changes in your health, show your emotions and point of view, and state what decision you’d like to see the judge make.
This article was originally published in the March 2026 issue.
